“We’re conducting a feasibility study for the next three to four months and everything is on the table,” said Tom Webb, executive director of the foundation. “We feel like it is important for the community to be aware that there is a need for physicians in Arkansas, and this is a drive to serve the underserved areas in the Fort Smith region, as well as the state of Arkansas.”

Osteopathic physicians have traditionally filled a critical need by practicing in rural and other medically under served communities. About 60 percent of practicing osteopathic physicians practice in the primary care specialties of family medicine, general internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology.

“CHCA supports the development and implementation of the osteopathic school and residency program which will help build the pipeline of osteopathic physicians’ availability for rural and under served communities,” the group’s board of directors stated in a news release.

Support also comes from the Arkansas Osteopathic Medical Association, the Arkansas Society of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, and the Arkansas Osteopathic Foundation.

Webb said the foundation has been studying the concept for several years, and noted that Arkansas is ranked 48th per capita based on the 2010 Healthy Workforce in Arkansas Study by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Center for Rural Health.

The latest data from Arkansas Department of Health’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System also indicates the greatest percentage of adults 18 and older that have no personal doctor reside in western Arkansas. Much is because of “disparities in the amount of licensed health care professionals per 10,000 in population,” according to Webb’s research from Arkansas Department of Health’s statistics.

“Our organizational mission is aimed at providing health-care services for our region by investing in practical solutions today, with a vision for tomorrow,” foundation chairman Kyle Parker stated in the news release.

Students will be recruited with the goal of enrolling those who wish to become primary care physicians and practice in Arkansas, Parker added.

“FSRHF’s effort to establish an osteopathic medical school parallels our vision for improving health care in the state,” Frazier Edwards, executive director of the Arkansas Osteopathic Medical Association, stated in the release. “The strong need in the area combined with community support contributed to sweeping osteopathic association support.”

The state’s osteopathic association also initiated a statewide effort to develop an osteopathic medical school within the state over four years ago, says Dr. James Baker, a doctor of osteopathic medicine and the association’s president. The association’s College of Osteopathic Medicine Oversight Committee, headed up by Dr. James E. Zini of Mountain View, gathered information and researched data from all corners of the state and found Fort Smith to be the best location.

“Our association has been working the past few years to develop the necessary clinical rotations to support an osteopathic medical school,” Zini said.

Currently, osteopathic physicians throughout the state, as well as both hospitals in Fort Smith, have begun adding osteopathic clinical rotations.

“Should the development of an osteopathic school in Fort Smith happen, it would be a private, nonprofit institution and unreliant on continuous public funds from the state,” the release states.